Lily: 1 Year and 31 Weeks (9/27/10 - 10/3/10)

I worked in Brighton on Monday through Wednesday of this week which meant that I was able to take advantage of the gym in the building after work. On Tuesday, I started the Couch to 5K (C25K) program through the app on my iPod Touch. It is a really nice app and I hope that it helps me get my out of shape butt back into running form. I would love to be able to run 10Ks again. Paul was in charge of keeping Lily entertained while I was exercising. On Monday, he took her to Toot’s place to see all of his tractors since she loved them so much at the apple orchard this past weekend. She charmed all of the men there with her love of tractors. She was also very excited to see Toot’s dogs and his pond. On Tuesday, Paul and Lily hung out at the house where he taught her the word “crap” when he dropped something on the floor. She had a lot of fun repeating, “Oh crap, oh crap.” It could have been a lot worse considering our forgetfulness in regulating our language around her but nonetheless, his father of the year award is in the mail! On Wednesday, Paul took Lily to the Botanical Gardens where she fell in love with the stuffed turtles in the gift shop. Apparently she had a blast scooping them all up in her arms and carrying them to the door. She got very upset, though, when Paul informed her that she could not leave with them and made her put them back. It was a gorgeous evening so after my workout, we met at the Brighton Recreation Area Riding Stables so that Lily could see the horses again.

I had kickboxing class after work on Thursday so Paul took Lily to Gallup Park while they waited for me. Lily delighted in riding super high on the swings with another little boy. They seemed to have a contest to see who could scream the loudest, much to Paul’s dismay.

On Friday, Lily turned 19 months old. Paul left that morning to head up north deer hunting for the weekend. Lily and I had a girls’ night out shopping at IKEA after work. I got her a few Christmas presents but what she loved the most in the store were the child-sized table and chair sets. We have Rachel’s old Winnie the Pooh table and chairs in the basement so I made a mental note to bring them up for Lily. We had dinner in the store because I love their Swedish meatballs but I hardly got to eat any because Lily absolutely loved them too. She ate almost every single one off of my plate and insisted on stabbing them by herself with the fork. She made quite a mess but was very pleased with herself. Upon leaving IKEA, we stopped at Kohl’s but it was getting late and Lily was sick of shopping so she started to protest when I put her in the shopping cart in the parking lot. Her protests turned to squeals of delight, though, when I raced the cart through the parking lot up to the store, running as fast as I could. That improved her mood enough to get through that quick stop. She was still hungry so I got her a cheeseburger Happy Meal before heading home. She ate almost the entire meal then passed right out in the car. She didn’t wake up when I took her out of the car and carried her up to the house. As I was unlocking the door, I could hear a faint train whistle in the distance. Lily lifted her head, sleepily said “twain”, and then fell right back to sleep. It was so cute.

Lily slept in until 8:30am on Saturday which was a blessing. We had a delightful time playing together. I brought Rachel’s old table and chairs upstairs for Lily and set them in a nook between the kitchen and dining room. Lily was so excited by them and spent a long time playing with them. After her late morning nap, we headed out to spend the night at my parents’ house. I didn’t tell her where we were going because I didn’t want to hear the “gwamma, gwamma” chant the entire ride there again but when we pulled down their street and she realized where we were, she let out a squeal of delight. She had a fun time playing all afternoon. After dinner, we headed to the mall where my mom and I did some shopping while my dad and Lily played in the children’s area. Lily loved all of the tunnels and appreciated being able to climb on everything. There was a little slide that she could climb up to and go down all by herself which she loved. She is very observant so she quickly noticed that all of the other kids there had their shoes off and so she wanted hers off as well. Lily completely wore herself out running around. She fell asleep in the car on the way home and stayed asleep until 7:30am. At that time, I told her to lie back down because I wanted to snooze a little longer and she, amazingly, went right back to sleep until 9:30am. That is her latest wake up time for me ever!

Lily had fun playing with grandma and papi on Sunday morning. Her favorite toy of theirs is an Elmo phone that has eyes that open when you flip open the phone. She kept closing it and saying “afweep” (asleep) then popping it open and happily declaring “he’s up!” It was so funny. After Lily’s nap (just one again), we headed out to Crossroads Village. That will be a separate blog entry because it involves so many pictures.

Lily remains weaned and no longer asks to nurse either at bedtime or during the night. We had a few rough nights of crying this week, though. On Tuesday, Lily cried a lot but I refused to cave in and comfort her back to sleep via nursing as Paul kept suggesting. We had done so well in our weaning efforts that I didn’t want to backtrack. It took a while, but she actually settled herself down for the first time ever. Finally! She cried a lot in the night again on Wednesday and couldn’t settle herself back down so I finally took her out of the crib and we rocked together in the rocking chair for a few minutes while she calmed down then she went back to sleep for the rest of the night without incident.

Here are some pictures from this week.

Lily is really into trains so I got out my old Fisher Price train set. She loved to put her Wheel Pals in it and pull it around the house with Nolan following:

Lily eating a pickle at IHOP on Tuesday. You know that I love her dearly because I let her eat them even though just the smell of them makes me sick to my stomach:

Tackling her BIG cheeseburger:

Perhaps the pickle is a bit sour:

I love this series (shot in quick succession) of my silly girl:

Lily loves pears but will only eat them whole:

Lily ate almost all of my Swedish meatballs at IKEA on Friday. She absolutely loved them even though they were incredibly messy:

Lily coloring at her "new" Pooh table in the kitchen:

She dragged the Pooh chair over next to her Eeyore chair then went and got her stuffed kitty to sit next to her. So cute:

This wagon was meant to hold beach toys, not toddlers, but Lily was having way too much fun playing in it at my parents' house on Saturday to care:

Reading her new favorite book 'Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb' with Grandma. Lily made grandma read her the book dozens of times this weekend:

My happy girl loves to hang out with her grandma:

September around the Yard (9/30/10)

Apparently our yard wasn’t very exciting this month. Either that or we never had the time to get out and take pictures. The entirety of our September outdoor photos consisted of 360 degrees of one Black Swallowtail butterfly taken by Paul on 9/2/10. I think they turned out pretty nice, though.

Lily's 18 Month Portraits (9/26/10)

Here are Lily's 18 month portraits taken by Two Angels Photography. Lily was a much more cooperative subject compared to when Christina took her one year portraits but it was still a bit difficult shooting a moving target who didn't like to look at the camera. Aah, the joys of photographing a toddler!

This is my favorite picture of Lily. She looks so mischievous:

And I love this one:

How Tall This Fall? (9/25/10)

There is a measuring pole at Spicer’s Orchard that we had Lily’s picture taken near last year so we had to do it again this year, of course. Last year, Paul had to help her stand near the pole. This year, I could barely get her to stay still long enough to snap the picture as she wanted to run all over the place. My, how things change.

Here is my chubby little Lily last year:


And here is my big girl this year:

Lily: 1 Year and 30 Weeks (9/20/10 - 9/26/10)

The fix on my car was just as expensive as I anticipated. The “Service Engine Soon” light was apparently triggered by low pressure in the fuel system which was caused by a leak in the gas line. When they told me that they just needed to replace the fuel line, I thought, “Okay, that should be an easy fix. How much can a tube cost?” The answer would be $445! Ouch! What is it made of- solid gold!? Then I dropped my iPod on the cement basement floor while riding the exercise bike that night and cracked the face of it which I am sure will be yet another expensive fix. Monday was not a good day for either me or my bank account.

Tammy closed the daycare on Wednesday for another doctor appointment but thankfully Kirsten was available and gladly took Lily for the day. They both had so much fun but Lily barely napped due to the excitement of being at Kirsten’s house. Lily likes being at Tammy’s but her and Kirsten still have quite a special bond. It was a really nice evening so we took Lily over to the Brighton Recreation Area Riding Stables to see the horses after we picked her up. She loved the horses as well as the various farm animals they had. Her favorite part was watching the horses run out to pasture for the evening when they were closing the stables. Lily’s lack of napping caught up with her and she crashed on the car ride home. Even though it was 7pm which is very early for her, she was apparently down for the night. I felt bad because she never got dinner and kept expecting her to wake up hungry in the middle of the night but she did not. She sure was hungry on Thursday morning, though!

Thursday was a good day. It was my weekly weigh-in day and I have now lost 20 pounds on the diet I started on 8/11/10. Yay! I am very proud of myself and with the weight loss and daily exercise, I feel much better already. My parents came over while we were at work and cleaned the house. I greatly appreciated that. Because I had kickboxing class, we didn’t get home until almost 7pm. My parents had dinner waiting for us when we arrived. A clean house and a great meal- what a wonderful thing to come home to! Lily finally said “gwamma” for my mom that evening.

Paul and Lily had a daddy/daughter evening on Friday night while I hung out with my friend, Mary. Her brother coaches football for Temperance Bedford so we went to their game versus Ann Arbor Pioneer after a delicious dinner at Raja Rani. I love Indian food but never get to eat it since Paul hates it. It was a very good football game but it was cold and windy so we ended up moving over to the more sheltered Pioneer side of the stadium. We sat in the student section where everyone looked like babies. I felt so old by comparison plus it kind of hurt my knees to climb the bleachers. When exactly did I become an old lady!? Mary cheered very loudly for Temperance Bedford which the Pioneer students did not appreciate. It was pretty funny but I joked that we might get jumped by a bunch of tiny kids in the parking lot after the game. After Temperance won the game, we went to Live at PJs in downtown Ann Arbor to watch our coworker, Kiyoshi perform. He is a great singer. Our other coworker, John, met us there and we had a lot of fun laughing at all of the drunken people trying to dance. It was a really fun and eventful night but I was so tired when I got home even though it was only 1am which is super early for a Friday night out on the town. Again- when did I get so old!?

Lily’s naps have been very unpredictable lately as she is still transitioning from taking two naps per day to only one. I tried to time everything perfectly on Saturday due to her 1:30 appointment for her 18 month pictures with Two Angels Photography. She ended up going down late for her nap so I had to wake her up to get to Spicer’s Orchard on time to meet Christina. I hated doing that because I feared that she would be cranky but thankfully, she was in a really good mood. The orchard was crowded so I called Christina as soon as we got there to find a place to meet only to learn that our appointment was for Sunday, not Saturday. I put it in my calendar wrong! I was so bummed as we busted our butts to get her ready and there on time and it was all for nothing. It was kind of cold out but a nice day nonetheless. Since we were already at the orchard, we hung out for a while and took Lily in to the children’s area to see the various farm animals and activities. She got to ride on a tractor train which she thought was a blast. The girl loves trains! She also loved all of the tractors they had and kept talking about them. She pronounces it “track-TOUR” with a large emphasis on the second syllable. It is adorable. Lily also got to ride a pony which she found delightful. So even though we didn’t have her pictures taken, our time there was well spent. When we left Spicer’s, we headed up to Davison for my mom’s birthday celebration. We had dinner at John’s Pizzeria then headed back to my parents’ house for presents, brownies, and ice cream. It was a very nice evening.

On Sunday, we returned to Spicer’s Orchard in the same clothing for our actual photo shoot. Lily has cried a lot for Christina in the past but she did well and seemed to really like her this time. However, Lily was much more interested in wandering around and playing with everything than standing still and smiling. A year ago, Lily was Christina’s very first non-family member subject when she was getting her photography business off the ground. We took pictures at the same orchard. This year has brought so many changes in Lily and quite a boom in Christina’s business. But just like last year, when we tried to take pictures of Lily with the apples from the orchard, she wouldn’t keep them out of her mouth. Some things change, some things stay the same! It was colder on Sunday than Saturday but Lily didn’t complain even when her hands got icy and her nose turned red. She was such a trouper.

Lily did not nurse at all this week. I never offered it, she never suggested it, and I didn’t let Paul lay her down in the bed with me on the weekend to trigger the request. Sometimes it makes it harder for me to calm her back to sleep when she wakes in the night but she also seems to wake less without the possibility of nursing as a soothing agent. I think I miss it more than she does. I don’t miss being a food factory but I do miss our special bonding time and continue to be solely in charge of her bedtime routine to keep that time uniquely ours.

Here are some pictures from this week.

Helping mama with the endless task of removing cat hair from the furniture on Tuesday:

This thing is getting pretty full:

Hey, it makes a great drum:

Lily loved the horses at the Brighton Recreation Area Riding Stable on Wednesday but was a little nervous of them too:

Petting a goat:

Running off to see a duck:

Watching the horses run out to the pasture:

So cute:

Lily was struggling in my arms because she really wanted to ride the horse statue:

But she settled for giving it a kiss instead:

Posing with dada and a horse in the background:

Lily loves her drumsticks so much that she even had to have them with her when eating breakfast on Friday:

Happily riding the train on Saturday at Spicer's Orchard:

I absolutely love these two:

Lily and I with the engine:

The train passed in the background while I got Lily in position for her very first pony ride:

Lily loved riding a horse:

She really wanted to drive this tractor:

Looking at some of the farm animals:

Playing at grandma's house after her birthday dinner:

My little monkey kept trying to climb onto the ottoman:

Aunt Gloria put a bow on Lily's head. Adorable:

My mom making a wish:

And blowing out her candles:

Lily applauding:

She absolutely loved my mom's Spongebob themed birthday cups:

Lily getting tickled by nana:

My big girl playing in the little rocking chair:

Lily loved the new toys that my mom got from her friend, Alice:

Cuddle time with a story from gwamma before heading home: